Pieces of Sky by Kaki Warner

This book has been sitting on my nightstand since I won it in a Dear Author giveaway earlier this year. I started it but got bogged down in the first few chapters. But I'm glad I finally got back to it - it wasn't perfect but definitely worth reading and a refreshing change from the usual historical settings.

Pieces of Sky by Kaki Warner
(2010, Western) 7/31/10
Grade: 4

Jessica Thornton has fled England, pregnant and desperate to escape a brother-in-law who wants her dead. But when her stagecoach crashes, she has to depend on Brady Wilkins, a ranch owner with a dark past of his own. On a ranch in New Mexico, she finds a new life and a new strength within herself - but will Brady put the past behind and join her?

I had mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, it was full of emotion and vivid characters. After a slow beginning with far too much plot exposition, the book took hold and the story was compelling. On the other hand, it was a bit like a soap opera, with one terrible thing after another after another. There are over-the-top evil villains, violence, death, fires, rape, torture - the tragedies just keep piling up. (Even the dog isn’t safe!) After a while it was exhausting. When the book slowed down and focused on the hero and heroine, it was well worth reading, but sometimes it was hard to find them among all the melodrama. Still, I will look for her next book and hope that the overstuffed plot was just the overenthusiasm of a first time author.

It's so nice to see a Western again, even though this one had a little too much violence and torture for my taste. I seem to be reading a lot of violent books lately, between Carla Kelly's war books and this one. I think I need a nice genteel Regency to cleanse the palate.

Marrying the Royal Marine by Carla Kelly

I decided to finish out the trilogy with the most recent Carla Kelly book.

Marrying the Royal Marine by Carla Kelly
(2010, Regency) 7/30/10
Grade: 3.5

After a lonely childhood in an orphanage, Polly Brandon leaves for Portugal to live with her sister. On the trip over, she meets gallant marine colonel Hugh Junot. But he is sure he’s too old for her. But when the chaos of war leaves them in the hands of the French, they have to work together to survive, and they both see the other in a new light.

Not a very good description, but it’s hard to describe the plot in just a few lines. I was really excited by this book at first. I liked the characters, and the background of the war in Portugal and the struggles of the female victims of the French reminded me of One Good Turn, one of my favorite Kelly books. It was a little slow at first, but I was hopeful. However, the book took a detour in the second half when the hero and heroine were kidnapped by the French. It became a road romance, where the focus was more on what happened than on the development of the characters. After a while, I got tired of reading about where they went and what they ate and who they saw. The characters and their emotions felt like an afterthought. I enjoy Carla Kelly’s writing and I feel like I learned about the war in Portugal and Spain, but it just didn’t work for me as a romance.

Unfortunately, I'm beginning to feel like I enjoy Carla Kelly more in theory than in reality. I always buy her books when they first come out because I want to love them and I want to support Harlequin for keeping trads going, but I haven't really loved one of her books since One Good Turn.

The Surgeon's Lady by Carla Kelly

There's nothing like a trip to entice me to read. When I'm away from the distractions of the interwebs and the Tivo, it's much easier to pick up a book.

The Surgeon's Lady by Carla Kelly
(2009, Regency) 7/25/10
Grade: 4

After widowed Lady Laura Taunton receives a letter from her long lost sister, she leaves her unhappy life behind and heads to Plymouth to meet her new family. She visits the Royal Naval Hospital as a favor to her sister, and finds herself caught up with the injured men and the fascinating surgeon, Lt. Philemon Brittle. Phil is attracted to Laura from the first moment he sees her, but would a lady ever want a life with an overwhelmed surgeon caught up in the horrors of war?

This book was wonderful in some ways, and underwhelming in others. The background of the naval hospital, and the stories of the patients and their medical treatment, was fascinating. Each of the secondary characters came to life. Unfortunately, the limited page count of a Harlequin Historical meant that something had to give, and often, that was the characterization of the hero and heroine. Although I liked both characters, something seemed to be missing. The author threw the heroine into a new situation without really taking the time to explore who she was. This came out eventually, but I felt like it wasn't quite enough. The same with Phil - he's a great hero, but we learn very little about him beyond his devotion to medicine. The book is beautifully written (as expected from Carla Kelly) but I kept thinking it needed just a few more chapters to really sing.

As a side note, I love this cover. It didn't win the cover contest, but it was my favorite historical cover this year. So soft and romantic, and none of the annoying blurbs and logos and advertising cluttering up the image. (And you can see both faces!) To me, this is much sexier than a heroine hiking up her skirt.

Scandal's Lady by Mary Kingsley

I haven't been reading very much - no real reason, except nothing has grabbed my attention. So I decided to pull an old book from my keeper shelf and see if it held up.

Scandal's Lady by Mary Kingsley
(1994, Regency) 7/20/10
Grade: 3.5

Governess Cassandra Aldrich is surprised and pleased to discover her childhood friend, Nicholas St. John, is the new Earl of Lynton and is living nearby. She hasn't seen him since he left for sea many years ago. But she knows that her position - and the scandal in her past - will prevent her from being more than an acquaintance. But when Nicholas needs her help, will she risk it all for love?

I first read this in 1995, when I was a fairly new romance reader. (I read romance when I was in high school and college, but I didn't become a devoted reader until the early 90's when I went off to grad school and could afford to buy my own books.) Mary Kingsley was one of my favorite Regency authors, and I loved this book and put it on my keeper shelf - where it sat, unread, until now. Unfortunately, it wasn't as enchanting the second time around. The characters were nice, the Regency setting was pleasant, and I always like a second chance at love story. But it just felt boring, like I'd read the story many times before. (I didn't remember the specifics of the storyline, but what seemed fresh and new in 1995 seemed blah in 2010.) The characters just didn't come to life. I guess this is one keeper that I won't be keeping any more.

I have several more books on my keeper shelf that I haven't revisited since the 1990's. Now I'm wondering if I want to reread them or not - should I see if I'll enjoy them the second time around, or leave them undisturbed and preserve my memories?

A Secret Affair by Mary Balogh

The last book in the Huxtable series. I've enjoyed revisiting Balogh, even though I haven't loved every book. I enjoyed this series as a whole much better than the Slightly series.

A Secret Affair by Mary Balogh
(2010, Regency Historical) 6/13/2010
Grade: 4

Everyone sees the Duchess of Delacorte as aloof, and gossips about her much older husband and her string of lovers. But Hannah is much different than the gossips know. Now that she is a widow, she is ready to take a lover, and settles on Constantine Huxtable - who also presents a face to the world that is quite different from the inner man.

Back to mild disappointment. This book had a lot of potential. The hero and heroine were fascinating characters, particularly the heroine who was full of contradictions, full of new layers that Constantine pulls back one by one. But the book was spoiled (at least a little bit) by the layers of sugar that Balogh piles on. There are far too many sugary-sweet reunions of the Huxtable family, too many characters who are too-good-to-be-true, and too many people sobbing on each other’s shoulders. A little of this goes a long way, and sometimes it seemed like Balogh wanted to drown us in a wave of treacle. However, the characters kept the story from completely falling apart, and I found the book very readable. Just not quite in keeper territory.

Now that I've spent a few weeks in Regency England, I think I need something completely different. I have a contemporary in my TBR pile about a country singer...

Seducing an Angel by Mary Balogh

Huzzah! A Balogh that left me feeling happy, not disappointed.

Seducing an Angel by Mary Balogh
(2009, Regency Historical) 6/12/2010
Grade: 4.5

Lady Paget is desperate. The ton thinks she’s a scandalous murderer, but she’s destitute and her only option to to find a wealthy man and become his mistress. She chooses “angelic” Stephen Huxtable, the Earl of Merton, and his kindness makes her feel things she thought she could never feel again.

Definitely the best in the series so far. After three stories of perfect heroines, we finally get a heroine who has real problems, and who isn’t the perfect angel. (Since this is a Balogh, of course she’s not really bad, but she definitely has some hard edges, especially compared to the saintly Huxtables.) And Stephen was an interesting hero - his essential niceness forces him into situations that he isn’t quite expecting, and makes him turn his assumptions upside-down. There was real character growth for both of them. The book had nice pacing, other than a slow section in the last part of the book, and it managed to avoid most of the saccharine happy-wives-and-babies family reunions which Balogh loves so much This didn’t quite make it into keeper territory, but it’s the best book Balogh has written since Slightly Dangerous.

Right now, I don't think this is a keeper. But I felt the same way about Slightly Dangerous, and it grew on me, and became a keeper on the second reading. So this one is going on my keeper shelf for the time being, even if it's still on probation.

At Last Comes Love by Mary Balogh

I'm enjoying this series, but I wonder if The Cosby Show was as big in Canada as it was here? I can't help associating the name Huxtable with the Coz.

At Last Comes Love by Mary Balogh
(2009, Regency Historical) 6/8/2010
Grade: 4

At the age of 30, Margaret Huxtable isn’t sure she will ever marry. But an impulsive lie to an old love leads her into the arms of Duncan Pennethorne, the notorious Earl of Sheringford who shocked the ton 5 years earlier by runnng off with a married woman. Duncan is desparate to marry, but is there more to Margaret than convenience?

This book had the opposite problem of the last book in this series - this one started off great but fell apart in the end. Although the plotline of a marriage of convenience was very similar to the previous book, this one came to life in the first part of the story. The characters were interesting and well written, and it was interesting that the story hinged on the opinions of the ton and the hero’s situation as a social pariah who finds his way back. Unfortunately, the book started to get a little dull once the hero and heroine married. There were some nice moments, but for the most part, it was same-old-same-old. But that wasn’t too bad. The book really went off the rails in the last few chapters, when bizarre melodramas appeared out of nowhere. Some of the characters act in strange, out of character ways, and the plot was straight out of Catherine Coulter. The author might have made this very weird plot twist work if she’d spent half the book on it, but having it show up at the last minute, just to give the characters something to do in the last few chapters? It made very little sense and it really spoiled the book for me. This book was heading into keeper territory until this very odd turn of events near the end.

Is it worse to have a book that starts slow but ends well, or a book that is great up until a bad ending? I try to evaluate a book as a whole, but it's hard to love a book that leaves you with a bad impression.

Then Comes Seduction by Mary Balogh

Another one in the Huxtable series. An interesting dress on the cover - you rarely hear about a heroine wearing a brown dress, unless she's a governess trying to look unattractive. This one definitely doesn't look governess-like. (Not that the heroine actually wears a brown dress in this book, at least not that I remember.)

Then Comes Seduction by Mary Balogh
(2009, Regency Historical) 6/6/2010
Grade: 4

Even though Jasper Finley, Baron Montford, is a notorious rake, Katherine Huxtable finds him dangerously attractive. Their relationship begins with a wager of sex - and then one of love - and ends up with a marriage that neither expected. But will Katherine discover that Jasper has hidden depths, and he’s more worthy of love than she ever expected?

Although this book was better than the last one in this series, it was very slow getting started. The setup was familiar but well done - he’s a dangerous rake, she’s a virtuous lady - but it got very bogged down in the middle of the book. It only really picked up again in the last third, after Katherine and Jasper are married. The characters definitely came alive in the last section of the book, and the story was familiar but interesting - Balogh is the best at creating heroes that are dealing with dysfunctional family backgrounds. I just wished that I hadn’t had to slog through 200 pages of nice-but-dull to get there.

Balogh has had some odd words and phrases in her last few books that seem historically inaccurate. I can't say for sure if they are - did people in the 19th century say that white was the combination of all colors, something that most people don't say now - but the word "sex" feels very anacronystic, even if it's not.

First Comes Marriage by Mary Balogh

I've been waiting for the last book to come out before I delved into Balogh's latest series. She's been a bit disappointing to me lately, but I live in hope!

First Comes Marriage by Mary Balogh
(2009, Regency Historical) 5/31/10
Grade: 3.5

When Viscount Lyngate arrives in their small village, Vanessa Huxtable Dew isn’t expecting her life to change. But soon she and her family are whisked away, as her younger brother has unexpectedly inherited an Earldom. Vanessa finds herself married to the viscount, her brother’s guardian - is it just to save her family, or is there more emotion involved?

This is the first book in a new Balogh series, and a lot of time is spent introducing the characters for the next four books. This takes away from the main romance between Elliott and Vanessa - but their romance doesn’t have a lot of conflict, so the time spent with other characters doesn’t detract much from the story. She thinks she’s plain but it determined to be happy anyway, he’s stuffy and afraid of love because his father was unfaithful - it all seems like a pale copy of Balogh’s other books. Vanessa, in particular, is very reminiscent of Christine in the much better Slightly Dangerous, but this book lacks the depth of emotion that that book had. (The most moving part of the book is Vanessa’s devotion to her first husband, who died young of consumption, but even that lacks some depth of feeling.) There’s nothing terribly wrong with this book - the characters are pleasant and the book is well written - but it just doesn’t bring anything new to this nice but familiar story. 3.5 - grading on the Balogh scale, since I know how much better her books can be.

There were things I really liked about this book, and I might have given a newer author more of a pass - but I know Balogh can take a familiar story and make it sing, and she just didn't do that here. So Balogh gets graded on a curve.

Broadway Nights by Seth Rudetsky

This was great fun. It tells the story of a part-time Broadway pianist who is now the music director of his first show - and all of his personal and professional dramas. I listened to the audio version and it was hilarious. It's read by the author (with guest appearances by lots of actors and actresses) and it's full of great dish about Broadway. It might have been a little too long in book form, but as an audio it was great. Very funny, and it made my commute fly by. Since this isn't a romance, I'm not going to give it an official rating, but I would highly recommend it to Broadway fans. (This is kind of an odd picture, but I bought the unabridged audio from Audible.)

Fantasy in Death by J.D. Robb

Still a fan of the J.D. Robb books, although this one was not her best.

Fantasy in Death by J.D. Robb
(2010, Futuristic Suspense) 5/22/2010
Grade: 3

The latest in the Eve/Roarke series. In this installment, the head of a computer game company is killed during a holo game, but how did it happen when he was alone in his apartment? And were his three business partners as close as they appeared to be?

This was one of the weaker entries in the series. The personal interactions between Eve and her friends were nice enough (I particularly liked Peabody in this one) but the case itself was dull. The three main suspects were barely distinguishable through most of the book, and the motive seemed to appear out of nowhere in the last 50 pages. Considering Roarke is supposed to be a computer genius, it seemed odd that no one even considered the method the killer used until almost the end of the book. (It seemed obvious to me in the first chapter). Usually I read the In Death books in a few hours, even the less interesting books in the series, but I found myself plodding through this one. It did improve in the last 100 pages or so, but overall, this one just fell short.

Multi-billionaire Roarke isn't exactly a realistic hero, but I had to laugh in this book when he mentions that he works on hologames in his spare time. In between working on cases with Eve and running half the businesses on the planet, presumably.

The Heart of Christmas (Anthology)

Seems a little odd to be reading a Christmas anthology while sitting by the pool in Florida (in May!) but somehow it worked.

The Heart of Christmas (Anthology)
(2009, Regency) 5/2/10
Grade: 3.5

Three stories: A Handful of Gold by Mary Balogh, A Season for Suitors by Nicola Cornick, This Wicked Gift by Courtney Milan. The first two are reprints, the third is new.

The Balogh story is a reprint, but it's still one of her most charming. The heroine, Verity Ewing has to become a mistress to save her sick sister. Julian Dare is planning a week of debauchery before an arranged marriage. But when they are stranded in the snow at Christmas, the find love. A little schmaltzy, but Balogh always gets me even when the story is as corny as this one.

The Cornick story is also a reprint, although I hadn't read it. It feels like an excerpt from a longer book. The heroine, Clara Davenport, has been in love with Sebastian Fleet for years, but he considers her just a friend. Finally she turns to him for advice, and he starts to see her in a new light. The characters were interesting, but it felt like a badly abridged version of a full length book - a lot of important details were missing.

The Milan story was well written and unusual, but it also felt somewhat contrived. The most interesting aspect was that the hero and heroine were not wealthy or titled. They were working people on the edge of poverty. The dialogue was also well written. However, the setup was odd. The heroine sleeps with the hero because he bought up her brothers debt.. but not really. At first they seem to be strangers, but then they act like they've been deeply in love for years. The story just felt unfinished, as if the author had to leave important parts out to fit it in the allotted page length. It definitely showed promise, but it didn't quite work for me.

Writing short stories is definitely an art, and most authors are not that good at it. Too many of them try to squeeze a full length book into short story length. And yet, I keep trying, because a good short story is so satisfying!

Always Valentine's Day by Kristin Hardy

Another vacation read - I read this one on the beach and in the jacuzzi tub. Such a great place to enjoy a good book!

Always Valentine's Day by Kristin Hardy (SSE 1952)
(2009, Contemporary Series) 5/1/10
Grade: 3.5

Larkin Hayes is on a cruise to Alaska to reconnect with her father after his latest divorce. But she keeps running into Christopher Trask, a goat farmer from Vermont, and his widowed aunt, Molly. After the cruise, they all meet again in Vermont - and Larkin finds that goats are more interesting than she'd expected.

This was a surprisingly fun and charming book. The characters were interesting and well written, and had more depth than you might expect. Even though the story was a bit predictable, the author does a good job with the two settings (the Alaskan cruise and the Vermont goat farm) and creates believable conflicts between the characters. The only negative was that a lot of secondary characters are shoehorned into the first section of the book, presumably because they appeared in previous stories. But they mostly disappear once the book gets going. Overall, an enjoyable read.

I debated whether to give this a higher grade, but it wasn't that memorable. A week later and I can barely remember it. But I enjoyed it while it lasted.

The Trouble with J.J. by Tami Hoag

I always pick some older books to take with me on the plane. This one kept me entertained on my trip to Florida.

The Trouble with J.J. by Tami Hoag
(1988, Contemporary Series) 4/28/10
Grade: 3

This is a reprint of an old Loveswept from the 80's. Genna Hastings is appalled when a tacky football player moves in next door, along with his collection of pink flamingos. But J.J. Hennessy turns out to be more interesting than she expected, and when he needs her help to gain custody of his adorable daughter, Genna starts to see J.J. in a new light.

This was a cute and charming book that worked well for the first two thirds, but fell apart in the last third. The hero and heroine had great chemistry, and their banter was fun and light hearted. The story was a bit cliched but for the first part of the book, it worked. However, the book lost its charm in the last section. Once the hero and heroine got together, the author throws in a bunch of silly misunderstandings to keep the story going, and unfortunately it let me feeling a bit disappointed.

It's amazing that the publisher was able to stretch this book into 320 pages. The print was huge! I guess you have to do something to make a skinny little Loveswept look like a full length book.

Something About You by Julie James

I'm such a bad reader! This is the first book I've read since January - shocking! I guess my New Year's resolution to read a book a week didn't work very well. One of my online reading groups picked this book for a book chat, so that forced me to finish something, finally.

Something About You by Julie James
(2010, Contemporary) 4/10/10
Grade: 3.5

When assistant U.S. attorney Cameron Lynde spends a weekend at a hotel, she never thought she'd witness a murder - or come face to face with FBI Agent Jack Pallas again. Three years ago, she'd worked with Jack and felt a strong attraction, but the investigation had ended badly. Now she's forced to work with him again - and this time, the sparks will really fly...

This book started with a lot of promise. Julie James is excellent at writing snappy dialogue and building sexual tension between characters. I enjoyed the interplay between Cameron and Jack. There were also great secondary characters, particularly Cameron's friend Collin and Jack's partner Wilkins. But after a while, I wanted more, and it just wasn't there. The book started to feel like yet another cookie cutter romantic suspense book. This was a real disappointment to me, because James's earlier books felt so fresh and innovative. I'm not a big fan of romantic suspense, and I just didn't care about the action scenes and the "killer on the loose" plotline. I was more interested in learning about the characters, and while there was some depth (particularly when it came to the heroine's relationship to her friends), there just wasn't enough character development. The sex scenes were hot, but they felt like dozens of other hot scenes I'd read before. (It's a bad sign when the hero and heroine are having hot sex and all you can think is, "will they get done soon so we can go back to the gay friend?") The characters just didn't engage me enough to make the familiar story feel new.

This probably sounds like I hated the book, which I didn't. It was well written and had some great dialogue. If this was by another author, I probably wouldn't have been so disappointed - but if it had been by another author, I probably wouldn't have bought it in the first place. Romantic suspense - even witty, hot romantic suspense - is just not my cup of tea. But it is a huge disappointment to find that my favorite author of 2009 has turned into yet another "eh, it was OK, I guess" author. And I see her next book is yet another FBI-agent-chasing-killers book. Sigh... still on the lookout for a good contemporary author who doesn't write about FBI agents.

A Hint of Wicked by Jennifer Haymore

I'm always on the lookout for new authors. To me, one of the great pleasures of reading is discovering a new author - I would be so bored if I only read the same old favorites! (Not to mention, I have to keep finding new authors, as my previous favorites stop writing the books that I enjoy the most.) And so, even if a debut book has flaws, it's still an enjoyable experience.

A Hint of Wicked by Jennifer Haymore
(2009, Regency Historical) 1/3/2010
Grade: 3.5

After seven years mourning her husband Garrett, who died at Waterloo, Sophie is finally happily married to his cousin and best friend, Tristan. But when Garrett returns alive, Sophie is pulled in two directions. Garrett was her first love, but he seems so different. And is there something strange about his reappearance, with the mysterious Mr. Fisk at his side?

This book had a lot of promise, and even though it had some flaws as well, I have high hopes for the author in the future. She does a great job showing how the heroine is torn between these two men, and how she loves them both. I wish she’d spent more time describing how Sophie had changed over the years, and come into her own as an adult woman since Garrett left - it’s mentioned a few times but it could have been explored in more detail. Because of that, I felt that Sophie’s ultimate choice wasn’t given enough support. She says all the right things at the end about why she made the choice she did, but there’s a long section in the middle where she barely thinks about the other guy, so I was a little skeptical when she declares that it was “always him” at the end. (I’m being vague so not to be too spoilery.) But it’s a nice change from the usual romance triangle, where the “other man” has to either turn out to be evil, or die tragically. Kudos to the author for avoiding both of those cliches.

The other flaw here is a couple of sex scenes that seem out of place - one at the beginning that involves bondage for no apparent reason (it’s never mentioned again) and another one that involves a fantasy about a threesome. They just didn’t seem to go with the rest of the book, and it almost felt like they were thrown in to make the book “hotter”. It was just an unnecessary distraction from the real substance of the book.

On the other hand, the plot about Garrett’s disappearance and the mysterious Mr. Fisk kept building and building throughout the book, until I couldn’t stop turning the pages to see what was going to happen. I debated on how to rate this one - I had to grade it down just a bit because the romance didn’t quite work, but it had so much going for it - I’ve already added the author’s next book to my wish list.

I have to comment on the cover. I know that authors don't choose their covers. But I've been laughing at this cover ever since I first saw it last spring! What is she doing with that flower?? Tucking it in her butt cleavage? Scratching an itch? I know some people thought this cover was pretty, but it just looks uncomfortable to me, not sexy.

The Lost (Anthology)

I just finished this anthology, which contains stories by J.D. Robb, Patricia Gaffney, Mary Blayney and Ruth Ryan Langan.

The Lost (Anthology)
(2009, Suspense) 1/1/2010
Grade: 4, 4, 2, 2

J.D. Robb: A woman goes missing from the Staten Island Ferry. Patricia Gaffney: A wife and mother awakens from a coma to discover she’s n the body of a dog. Mary Blayney: A cursed man finds hope with a religious singing nurse. Ruth Ryan Langan: A woman travels to Ireland to discover whether she’s the long lost daughter of a tycoon.

Two of the stories were excellent, and the other two were dull. The Blayney story was too convoluted for me. I read about 30 pages, but it just didn’t add up to a coherent story. The Langan story was very predictable. I predicted everything that would happen on page 1, and I wasn’t surprised.

The Robb story was one of the better installments of this series. I was a little worried about the mysterious futuristic gadget that comes up during the story, but it doesn’t magically solve the mystery. The most interesting part of the story was the question it brought up for Eve - is killing ever justified? It puts her outlook on life up against Roarke’s, and I would have loved to see this expanded to a full length book. Still, the story held together and I enjoyed it.

The most surprising story was The Dog Days of Laurie Summer by Patricia Gaffney. It was really funny! And yet, all of the fun elements of a woman-in-a-dog went with the real emotions of the heroine trying to connect with her family. It was very unexpected from Gaffney, and definitely made the anthology worth reading.

It's always hard to justify paying $7.99 for an anthology that might only contain one or two good stories. But this might be a good book to get from the library, just for the Gaffney story (and the Robb if you are an Eve and Roarke fan).

P.S. Trying to spiff up my blog with pictures - we'll see how that works out!

Best of 2009

I've been very disappointed in myself this year! I only read 31 books, compared to 102 last year, and almost all of those were in the first few months of the year. I have barely read anything at all since June. Admittedly, I've been very busy, with moving and starting a new job, but one of my resolutions this year is to read more. My goal is a book a week. (If I don't start reading, my TBR pile will overwhelm me!)

I only had two books this year that I graded 4.5, which is the equivalent of an A read. (No keepers, but I've become very picky about those...) One was a 2009 book, Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James. I think one reason I loved this book so much was that it was a contemporary. It's so hard to find a great contemporary! The other was a mostly unknown Harlequin Temptation from 2003, Room But Not Bored by Dawn Atkins. I really loved the characters, who weren't stereotypical at all, and I loved that the conflict came out of who they were as people, and felt very real. Although it's out of print, I'd recommend looking for it at a used bookstore! (If you can still find one - the great used bookstores seem to be disappearing, especially ones that carry back lists.)

Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James

Room But Not Bored by Dawn Atkins

Here are the other books that I gave good grades (4). All of these were well worth reading. Not very many from 2009 - I didn't buy a lot of books this year. Hopefully more 2009 books will turn up on my future lists.

Marrying the Captain by Carla Kelly (2009)
Just the Sexiest Man Alive by Julie James (2008)
The Legacy by T.J. Bennett (2008)
The Holly and the Ivy by Elisabeth Fairchild (1999)
The Fifth Favor by Shelby Reed (2005)
Shadows of the Heart by Tracy Grant (1996)
Indigo by Beverly Jenkins (1996)
The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie (2009)
Knight of Desire by Margaret Mallory (2009)
Christmas Promise by Carla Kelly (short story) (2009)

One thing these all have in common - they all tried something different. Sometimes it was a different setting, or a different type of character, or a different storyline, but they weren't the same-old-same-old. Although I appreciate a tried-and-true story if it's done well, it's nice to see something new and different (if it's done well!).

One bonus of not reading a lot this year - not many clunkers. (I gave up on a few books without finishing them, but I don't count those.) The only truly bad books I read this year were The Wicked Ways of a Duke by Laura Lee Guhrke, which I read at the very beginning of January and mentioned last year, and The Santangeli Marriage by Sara Craven, which made it very clear to me that Harlequin Presents is Not For Me. But nothing since January that really made me want to scream and throw things. I guess that's a good thing!

So now I'm off to attack my TBR pile. Hopefully I'll have much more to report in the near future!


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Now playing: Owl City - Fireflies
via FoxyTunes

A Regency Christmas (Anthology)

It's nice to see Harlequin continuing the tradition of the Regency Christmas anthology, even if only one of the stories was really worth reading.

A Regency Christmas by Lyn Stone, Carla Kelly and Gail Ranstrom
(2009, Regency) 12/28/09
Grade: 2, 4 and DNF

Three Christmas stories by Lyn Stone, Carla Kelly and Gail Ranstrom. The Lyn Stone story is about a wounded captain who is thrown together with an equally troubled woman. Carla Kelly revists Navy captains with a story about a navy captain reviving a romance with an old love, now widowed. And Gail Ranstrom’s story is about the reading of a will.

The Lyn Stone story had promise, but it seemed like enough story for a book (or two) was crammed into 90 pages, and in the end, the story fell apart under its own weight. The Gail Ranstrom story felt very mannered and didn’t appeal, so I gave up after 20 pages. But the Carla Kelly story, Christmas Promise, made this book worthwhile. It was a lovely story of a Navy captain, left at loose ends when the war ends, rediscovering the woman he grew up with, who married his best friend, and who is now widowed. Somehow Carla Kelly can fit a story like this into 90 pages without it seeming rushed or incomplete (although I would have loved more). Her hero, Jeremiah Falk, was wonderful - somehow Kelly can write heroes who can be vulnerable but still very strong. The heroine was less well characterized (she was one of Kelly’s trademark strong-and-virtuous heroines) but she had her moments. Despite the short length, it left me with warm fuzzies, and it was a perfect compliment to her recent books about Naval heroes. A 4+ for that story (and alas, a 2 for the others).

I was looking through my Christmas anthologies from Mary Balogh and Mary Jo Putney, and Carla Kelly definitely needs an anthology of her own. (I saw in an interview that her publishers were considering it. Please, pretty please!) The interview (at Word Wenches) also said that the original title for this story was While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks, which is a great title, but I think Christmas Promise works well with the story.

Kindred in Death by J.D. Robb

I haven't posted in so long! I've barely read anything in the past few months. It took a library notice to nudge me into reading something new.

Kindred in Death by J.D. Robb
(2009, Futuristic Romantic Suspense) 12/26/09
Grade: 3.5

When the 16 year old daughter of a NY police captain is murdered, Eve Dallas is on the case. The horrific scene shocks even Eve, but she and Roarke methodically investigate, tracing the crime back over decades, to the police captain’s past.

Although I’m not usually a fan of suspense, there is something about the J.D. Robb books that attracts me. Maybe because they are procedurals and I like seeing all the pieces fall into place. This one felt very Law and Order-ish (and that’s a compliment). There wasn’t a lot of emphasis on the secondary characters, although we get to see Eve working with her team, including Roarke. (I was amused by his annoyance with the tedium of police work, although you would think he’d be used to it by now!) Overall, I found this a solid entry in the series, although nothing exceptional.

Interesting that there is no mention of Nora Roberts anywhere on the book, unlike previous books in the series. The jacket merely says "J.D. Robb is the pseudonym for a number-one New York Times bestselling author." I wonder if they're trying to widen the book's appeal to men? This would be a good book for a newbie to start with, if they didn't want to go back to the beginning - although I'm not sure if a reader could understand Eve without knowing her back story.